Monday, December 11, 2006

Broken Record

I'm just curious if a Conservative can complete a sentence, give an answer to a question, without referencing the Liberal Party. Watching today's Question Period, it was amazing to see the old crutch used continually, primarily as a means to deflect any responsibility From Friday's QP, notice a trend?:

Jason Kenney:
Mr. Speaker, it is very clear that the Liberals continue to try to distract public attention away from the fact that the entire Arar fiasco occurred under their watch.

Stock Day:
Mr. Speaker, those two words “do nothing” could characterize the former Liberal regime and what it did not do on this file.

Jason Kenney(seperate question):
We saw that, under the Liberals, millions of dollars were wasted on programs that did not deliver tangible results.

Jason Kenney(seperate question):
the minister told the committee that the former Liberal government had not analyzed all the climate change programs. This minister and her department have analyzed and evaluated the programs, which have been changed to make sure they are effective and produce real results, meaning a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. This was not done under the Liberals

Lawrence Cannon:
The previous government put us in a situation where we were able to determine that nothing was working.

Stock Day (seperate question):
They did nothing.

Bev Oda:
As a result of savings in administration, this government is putting the money back into women, not into Liberal Party friends.

Bev Oda(seperate question):
The Liberals had 13 years to ensure that the rights of aboriginal women would be there.

Helena Guergis:
but the fact is that Canada can no longer afford to continue with the Liberal policy of complacency with respect to free trade agreements.

Christian Paradis:
Unlike the previous Liberal government which was all talk and no action, we take action.

James Moore:
When the Liberals were in power, they promised $590 million for the Pacific gateway, but they in fact did not spend it. The Liberals allocated it, but the money was never spent. We are proud to deliver what the Liberals failed to do.

Is there a statute of limitations for blaming the old government for every problem incurred? Does this obsession with all things Liberal every end? When you have nothing, or need to distract, blame the Liberals. I get it, but I suspect Canadians grow tired of a party that's central thesis is someone else's failings.

7 comments:

Devin Maxwell said...

Steve:

Michael Ignatieff provided the best response to this tired refrain last week in Question Period. Pointing across the fllor at the entire Conservative caucus, he said:

Mr. Speaker, the government has become accustomed, whenever it is in a tight corner, to blame a previous administration. Those members are the government. When are they going to start to act like one and take responsibility for their conduct?

I love it.

Steve V said...

devin

Good on Ignatieff.

I saw a clip with Mercer and Chuck Strahl last week, wherein Mercer asked him point blank "when are you guys going to stop blaming the Liberals?". It's really tired.

Anonymous said...

Hell yeah says this albertan. if i hear one more time "after 13 years of ...." I will have to feed the cons some lead sandwiches. Yahoo!

Anonymous said...

You realize us Canadians are paying for all this, eh?
The Cons dragging out the Committees they actually show up at, ditching scheduled meetings, supplying non-answers and softball questions in Parliament to use up the peoples' time, etc.
All of them seem to be putting off, holding back or not shoving 'cuz it's (insert politically correct word here) winter break, and the buggers won't have to face the people until February!
Imagine if you had a beef with a conractor, a landlord, or a renter and they told you, talk to me in a couple months...
Whatever happens in the next 40 days or so, the governments of this country better get it together and have a verifiable plan come February.
Think of it: the people of Canada have put their lives in the hands of people on holiday.

catnip said...

Is there a statute of limitations for blaming the old government for every problem incurred?

Are you kidding? Everything that happens in the US is still blamed on Bill Clinton. That never gets old for some people, apparently.

Bailey said...

That Helena Guergis quote is a weird one. Almost NDPesque upon first reading it. What was the question?

Anonymous said...

Bill Graham took heat for accusing the Conservatives of using Goebbels tactics - he was accused of calling the Conservatives Nazi's but the TRUTH is Goebbels tactic was to tell a lie often enough that it is believed to be the truth.

Bill Graham was right. Now the Conservatives will say he called them Nazi's so much people will believe it's the truth.

Harper also uses Stalin's method of pitting one against the other. He's facsinated with Stalin. Interesting that his methods are those of two dictators.

Helena Guergis is a joke. I read her bio - when she was running in Trinity/Spadina a few years ago she said she was "FOR" SSM and now that she's in the Harpercite caucus she is against SSM - flip-flopper accusing others of flip-flopping.